Lycoperdon pyriforme

Lycoperdon pyriforme: The pear shaped wolf-fart
puffball

Other Cool Stuff

Eat me!! – edible puffballs

Many of the mushrooms that have been deemed
safe (and delicious) to eat are members of the Agaricomycetes
class of Basidiomycota (exceptions include morels and
truffles which are Ascomycota). The pear shaped
puffballs (L. pyriforme)
and its relatives such as the giant puffballs (C. gigantea)
are indeed edible in nature.
However, before chomping down on any puffball mushroom, take a
minute and consider the following:

The outer layer of the puffball MUST be thin – if it’s thick you may have
yourself a POISONOUS mushroom, see below for details of dangerous look-alikes

The inside should be uniformly white, any darkening or discoloration indicates
that the puffball isn’t “ripe”, basically that it’s no longer in its edible form

The smaller puffballs should have a homogenous and marshmallow-type texture

Slice through every puffball before eating not only to check for color but also
any internal structures because this indicates that you probably have the LETHAL
mushroom called the death angel

Other tasty mushrooms

Morels, oyster mushrooms,
shiitake mushrooms and
chanterelles are just a few of the many different types of
delicious fungi. For more information about edible
puffballs and other mushrooms
click here. Or, for the culinary mycologists out there
looking for a challenge, check out the
cookbook provided by the Mycological Society of San
Francisco for puffball-related recipes (The parmesan puffballs
look like a winner to me!!)

These are usually present as gilled mushrooms but may have a spherical ball
appearance during certain phases of development.
They are distinguished from puffballs by the presence of internal
structures noted by slicing the ball portion in half

The
Poison
Pigskin Puffball - Scleroderma citrinumAlthough not known to be fatal, these "false puffballs" do tend to cause a wide
variety of moderate to severe gastrointestinal problems, so it's best to know
exactly what to look for when selecting mushrooms. Since both
Scleroderma and wolf-fart puffballs tend to be similar in size, other means
of differentiation must be used. The outer skin of Scleroderma is
much thicker than that of the edible puffballs. Also, Scleroderma
will have a very dark interior compared to the desired pure white color of L. pyriforme.

Some members of the Basidiomycota produce secondary
metabolites that have hallucinogenic effects when ingested by
humans. One such example occurs in the Psilocybe sp.
I encourage you to check out another student's
P. cubensis MultipleOrganisms site for additional
information and pictures.